APHIS Factsheet

Veterinary Services December 2012

Questions and 

Answers: Animal 

Disease Traceability 

Final Rule

Q. What is animal disease traceability?

A. Animal disease traceability, or knowing where 

diseased and at-risk animals are, where they’ve 

been, and when, is very important to ensuring a rapid 

response when animal disease events take place. 

Animal disease traceability does not prevent disease; 

yet, an efficient and accurate traceability system helps 

reduce the number of animals involved in a disease 

investigation and reduces the time needed to respond. 

Reducing the number of animal owners impacted by 

an animal disease event reduces the economic strain 

on owners and affected communities.

Q. Why is the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) issuing this final rule on animal disease 

traceability?

A. USDA is issuing this final rule to improve our 

ability to trace livestock and poultry when there is a 

disease event. While existing animal disease programs provide USDA and its partners with pertinent 

traceability information, the tracing capabilities vary 

widely by species. Thus, these animal disease traceability regulations focus on those species, such as 

the cattle sector, where improved capabilities are 

most needed. That sector’s inconsistent use of official 

identification coupled with the significant movement 

of cattle interstate warrants regulations that enhance 

the current traceability infrastructure. Certain other 

species – sheep for example – are already supported 

with adequate traceability through existing disease 

program requirements, such as the current scrapie 

eradication program. For those species, no additional 

traceability requirements will be needed.

Q. How are these regulations any different than 

the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)?

A. In 2006, under the previous Administration, USDA 

initiated the National Animal Identification System 

(NAIS). This voluntary program asked producers to 

register their premises and identify their animals with 

a national animal tracking database. After seeing 

low enrollment in NAIS, the Department launched 

a series of efforts in 2009 to assess the issues and 

concerns which were preventing widespread acceptance of NAIS in the livestock community. Producers 

raised several serious concerns about the protection 

of proprietary information through premise registration and the program’s overall lack of flexibility. As a 

result, NAIS was never fully implemented and eventually discontinued. The new animal disease traceability 

framework, announced today seeks a new and 

different approach with the following key principles:

•	 Allows for maximum flexibility for States, Tribal

Nations, and producers to work together

 to find identification solutions that meet their local 

needs; 

•	 Only applies to animals moving interstate;

•	 Will be owned, led, and administered by the

 States and Tribal Nations with Federal support 

 focused entirely on animal disease traceability;

•	 Encourages the use of low-cost technology; and

•	 Ensures that animal disease traceability data are

 maintained at the discretion of the States and 

 Tribal Nations.

Q. How does the final rule differ from the 

proposed rule issued in August 2011?

A. USDA kept the proposed rule open for comment 

from August 11 through December 9, 2011. During 

that time, 1,618 comments were received from a wide 

variety of commenters. When drafting the final rule, 

USDA took all of these comments into consideration.

As a result, the final rule has several differences from 

the proposed rule. Some of these changes include:

•	 Accepting the use of brands, tattoos and brand

 registration as official identification when accepted

 by the shipping and receiving States or Tribes

•	 Permanently maintaining the use of backtags as

 an alternative to eartags for cattle and bison 

 moved directly to slaughter

•	 Accepting movement documentation other than

 an Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection 

 (ICVI) for all ages and classes of cattle when 

 accepted by the shipping and receiving States or 

 Tribes

•	 Clarifying that exemption to the regulation applies

 to all livestock moved interstate to a custom 

 slaughter facility

•	 Exempting chicks moved interstate from a hatch-	

ery from the official identification requirements

Beef cattle under 18 months of age, unless they 

are moved interstate for shows, exhibitions, rodeos, 
or recreational events, are exempt from the official 

identification requirement in this rule. Additional traceability requirements for this group will be addressed in 

separate rulemaking in the future, allowing more time 

for APHIS to work closely with industry to ensure the 

requirements are effective and can be implemented.

The Supplementary Information section of the final 

rule provides the complete explanation of these 

changes.

Benefits

Q. How does this rule benefit producers?

A. The animal disease traceability final rule will 

benefit producers in several ways. Low levels of 

official identification in the cattle sector require more 

herds and cattle—often thousands of animals—to 

be tested during animal disease investigations than 

necessary, drastically increasing an investigation’s 

duration. For example, bovine tuberculosis disease 

investigations frequently now exceed 150 days. This 

means USDA and State investigative teams spend 

substantially more time and money in conducting 

tracebacks. 

As a result of the rule, accurate traceability 

information will be more readily available, enabling 

USDA to shorten investigation timelines, more quickly 

control the spread of certain diseases, and reduce the 

number of quarantined or disposed of animals. All of 

these improvements will help make animal disease 

outbreaks less costly for producers and help interstate 

animal movements continue. 

Development and Implementation

Q. Did you gather feedback on the framework for 

animal disease traceability?

A. Yes. In spring and summer of 2010, USDA hosted 

eight public meetings to discuss Secretary Vilsack’s 

new framework for animal disease traceability. In 

these meetings, USDA provided additional details 

about the new framework and learned from States, 

Tribes, and industry representatives, and producers 

how best to develop workable traceability systems. 

The final rule was developed not only through 

feedback collected from these meetings but also 

through input from a State-Tribal-Federal working 

group, Tribal consultations, and additional discussions 

with producers and industry.

In addition, Secretary Vilsack established the 

Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health, 

which has representation from States, Tribes, and 

industry. The committee has already met twice and 

United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture

offered feedback on the new framework. 

Moving forward, USDA will work collaboratively with 

State, Tribal Nation and industry representatives on 

implementation of the regulations.

Q. What role will States and Tribes play in the 

implementation of the final rule?

A. While animal disease traceability is a USDA 

cooperative program, the States and Tribes will be the 

primary administrators of the traceability activities. 

This approach to improving animal disease 

traceability allows States and Tribes to develop their 

own systems for tracing animals, designing what 

works best for them and for producers and others in 

their jurisdiction.

Basic Requirements for Interstate 

Movement

Q. Under the new regulation, what do I need to 

have to move my animal interstate?

A. Unless specifically exempted, livestock moved 

interstate would have to be officially identified and 

accompanied by an interstate certificate of veterinary 

inspection (ICVI) or other documentation agreed upon 

by the shipping and receiving States, such as an 

owner-shipper statement or a brand certificate. The 

regulations specify approved forms of official 

identification for each species, but would also allow 

livestock to be moved between the shipping and 

receiving States or Tribes with another form of 

identification, as agreed upon by animal health officials in the two jurisdictions.

Official Identification

Q. What is an official identification number?

A. The rule defines an official identification number as 

a nationally unique number permanently associated 

with an animal or group of animals. The official

identification number would have to adhere to one of 

the following systems, most of which are already in 

use:

•	 National Uniform Eartagging System (NUES)

 (typically, metal eartags such as silver USDA tag);

•	 Animal Identification Number (AIN);

•	 Location-based number system (e.g., sheep

 scrapie tags); or

•	 Any other numbering system approved by the

 Administrator for the official identification of 

 animals.
Q. How do I know what eartags are official? What 

types of eartags are recognized as “official” under 

the rule?

A. Official eartags are a common method of official

identification of several species. Official eartags ha

one of the following official identification numbers 

imprinted on the tag: 

•	 National Uniform Eartagging System (NUES).

•	 Animal Identification Number (AIN).

•	 Location-based number system.

•	 Flock-based number system.

The regulation also requires that the Official Eartag

Shield is imprinted on the tag.

Q. How does this rule support the use of low-cost 

technology as a form of official identification? 

A. Official identification is defined for each species.

For cattle, the low-cost NUES (metal eartag) may be

used. To encourage its use, USDA plans to provide 

these eartags at no cost to producers to the extent 

funds are available. While other producers may elect 

to use official eartags with radio frequency (RF), 

no State or Tribe may require official RF eartags for 

cattle moving into their jurisdiction. This ensures that 

all producers using the low cost official eartags may 

move their cattle to any other State or Tribal land 

using that method of official identification. This is a 

change to existing regulations in that a State or Tribe 

could currently require a specific method of official 

identification for livestock entering their jurisdiction.

Q. What happens if my animal loses its official 

identification eartag or other device?

A. If an animal loses its official eartag and needs 

a new one, the person applying the new one would 

have to record the following information and maintain 

the following information for five years:

•	 Date the new official identification device was

 added;

•	 Official identification number on the new device;

 and

•	 Official identification number on the old device, if

 known. 

This recordkeeping requirement will aid State, Tribal, 

and Federal officials when it is necessary to trace 

animals.

Q. How do official eartags enhance traceability?

A. The required tag distributions records associate 

the official identification number with the person that 

received the device. Such records provide animal 

health officials with a specific starting point from which 

to trace diseased or potentially diseased animals, 

such as a traceforward. Without official identification, 

animal health officials’ ability to accurately trace an 

animal’s movements can take months or may never 

be achieved. Official eartags provide the opportuni

to conduct a disease investigation from two points of 

reference rather than just one.

The sheep industry has had tremendous success 

with official identification expediting traceability for 

scrapie. As part of the National Scrapie Eradication Program (NSEP), a cooperative State-Federalindustry program, 92 percent of cull breeding shee

bear an official identification tag at slaughter, primarily 

using flock identification eartags applied at the farm 

of origin. This identification made it possible in 2010 

for USDA, as part of the scrapie surveillance program, 

to trace scrapie-positive sheep from slaughter to the 

flock of origin or birth 96 percent of the time, typically 

in a matter of minutes.

Q. How is the lack of official identification in the 

cattle sector hurting us?

A. Simply, low levels of official identification in the 

cattle sector require more herds and cattle—often 

thousands of animals— to be tested than necessary 

and drastically increase the time required to conduct 

investigations. For example, bovine tuberculosis 

disease investigations frequently now exceed 150 

days, as USDA and State investigative teams spend 

substantially more time and money in conducting 

tracebacks. When animals cannot be traced to specific locations, epidemiologists often need to expand 

herd testing to ensure that cattle with any potential 

for exposure are tested. Also, expanded timeframes 

for tracebacks may cause longer, more encompassing quarantines and/or imposed limitations on animal 

movement. At the same time, the potential for disease 

spread increases. 

Q. How will the traceability regulation help fix 

these problems? 

A. Increasing the levels of official identification will 

help State and Federal animal health official more 

quickly identify animals that do not need to be held 

and tested during an animal disease investigation. 

This information will reduce the number of locations 

and animals tested , thereby decreasing the length 

of the investigation and the cost to producers and the 

government. 

Q. How does the final rule work with existing 

USDA disease programs, for example tuberculosis 

and brucellosis?

A. The final rule creates a new section of the Code 

of Federal Regulations (CFR) with species-specific 

identification requirements. The other sections of the 

CFR related to disease program requirements were 

United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture
revised as necessary to be consistent with the final 

rule. These revisions recognize the different animal 

disease traceability needs of various animal species 

and build upon existing animal disease traceability 

successes. These revisions also clarify how our new 

framework for animal disease traceability works with 

existing disease control programs. While this rule 

establishes minimum traceability requirements, the 

disease program regulations may contain additional, 

or more specific, requirements necessary to control or 

eliminate livestock diseases. For instance, the 

traceability requirements of suspect, exposed, or 

reactor animals will be contained in the program 

regulations, not in the new traceability section. The 

disease program requirements supersede the 

minimum requirements of the traceability rule.

Interstate Movement Documentation

Q. What is an interstate certificate of veterinary 

inspection or ICVI?

A. An ICVI, often referred to as a health certificate, 

is an official document issued by a Federal, State or 

Tribal Animal Health Official, or accredited veterinarian

for the animals that are being shipped interstate. The 

ship from and ship to locations are listed on the 

certificate. If the animal is not required to be officially 

identified, the person completing the ICVI would 

specify the exemption that applies. Under specific 

circumstances, the traceability regulation provides 

options other than ICVIs for the interstate movement 

of livestock. 

Q. What documents are acceptable in place of an 

ICVI?

A. Movement documents other than an ICVI may be 

used when shipping and receiving States or Tribes 

agree to them; for example, an owner-shipper 

statement or a brand certificate.

Q. Why are movement documents necessary for 

traceability?

A. A key principle of the animal disease traceability framework is to minimize burden to producers. 

Therefore, producers will not have to report livestock 

movements on and off their farm or ranch as part of 

this final rule. Instead, producers can continue to use 

existing movement documents that are already widely 

used – ICVIs, owner-shipper statements, or brand 

inspection certificates. These documents will provide 

valuable information to help determine an animal’s 

movements in a disease event. 

Q. Why is there a recordkeeping requirement for 

ICVIs for approved livestock facilities?

A. USDA requires that approved livestock facilities 

keep ICVIs, or alternate documentation used in lieu of 

an ICVI, for livestock that enter the facility on or after 

the effective date of the final rule. An approved 

livestock facility is defined as a stockyard, livestock 

market, buying station, concentration point, or any 

other premises under State or Federal veterinary 

inspection where livestock are assembled. 

Because the lifespans of poultry and swine are 

relatively short, while other livestock, especially 

breeding cattle, typically live to be 5 or more years 

old, traceability information that fully supports disease 

control, eradication, and surveillance needs to be 

maintained for at least 2 years for poultry and swine 

and 5 years for all other livestock species. 

Exemptions

Q. Are there any exceptions for animals moving 

interstate that are uniformly applied to all 

species?

A. There are two circumstances when traceability 

requirements would not apply to interstate movement 

of livestock of any species:

•	 The movement occurs entirely within Tribal land

 that straddles a State line, and the Tribe has a

 separate traceability system from the States in 

 which its lands are located; or

•	 The movement is to a custom slaughter facility in

 accordance with Federal and State regulations for 

 the preparation of meat. 

Q. Will the size of my herd have any relation to the 

standards I must meet and who must participate?

A. The only threshold for participation is whether the 

producer has animals moving interstate. Producers 

who raise animals and move them within a State, 

Tribal Nation, and others that may move their animals 

interstate to a custom slaughter facility are exempt. 

Other exemptions are provided for through species

specific situations.

Q. Are producers who only market or sell animals 

locally required to participate?

A. No, as long as the movement is within the State 

or Tribal land. Only producers whose animals mo

interstate will be covered by the Federal animal disease traceability framework. 

Q. Can you explain more about the movement of 

livestock on Tribal land?

A. Under this rulemaking, Tribal lands, whether 

entirely within a State or straddling State lines, would 

be covered by the same traceability system as the 

State or States within which they are contained, 

unless the Tribal representatives choose to have their 

United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture
own traceability system separate from the State(s). If 

a Tribe’s land straddles a State line and does have 

a separate traceability system from the State within 

which it is contained, then, because of Tribal sovereignty, livestock movements taking place entirely 

within that Tribal land, even across State lines, would 

not be regarded as interstate movement. Therefore, 

the traceability requirements for interstate movement 

would not apply.

Cost

Q. What is compliance with the final rule going to 

cost the individual producer?

A. One of USDA’s priorities when it designed the

framework for animal disease traceability was to 

ensure that producers were not adversely impacted 

by the cost of the program by focusing on low-cost 

technologies. USDA plans to provide the NUES ta

(metal eartags) available at no cost to producers to 

the extent funds are available. The final rule also 

allows for a variety of official identification methods 

that have been approved by APHIS, so the producer 

can choose a format that works best for their operation. Some of the choices can be used both for identification and herd management, minimizing the need 

to buy multiple tags.

The regulatory impact analysis for this rule shows that 

most producers already identify their livestock and 

move them interstate with documentation. For them, 

the cost of compliance is negligible. By allowing flexibility for States and Tribes to recognize alternative 

forms of identification and movement documentation that fit the needs of their producers, the cost to 

producers is minimized. The costs of the program are 

expected to vary by both operation preference and 

whether traceability would be by individual animal or 

by lot or group.

Q. Will USDA provide funding to States and Tribal 

Nations to develop their animal disease 

traceability approaches?

A. It is USDA’s intent that animal disease traceability 

not be an unfunded mandate. As such, if available, 

USDA would provide Federal funding to assist States 

and Tribes to carry out activities that align with the 

scope of the new framework. 

Q. USDA spent a lot of money on the National 

Animal Identification System. What did you do 

with the money? Did it go to waste?

A. U.S. taxpayers made a significant investment in 

USDA’s past animal disease traceability efforts, and 

the money invested in NAIS will not go to waste.

USDA will be fiscally responsible and use some elements from NAIS in the new approach. Element

such as IT infrastructure and the unique location 

identifier process, have been updated to work with the 

traceability regulation, and remain available for the 

States and Tribal Nations to use. The 840 tags also 

remain available for producers who wish to use them.

Funding was also provided directly to the States and 

Tribes through cooperative agreements. Through 

these agreements, they were able to conduct pilot 

projects and field tests, enhance their communication 

infrastructure, and develop industry working groups. 

These activities have helped the States and Tribes 

develop their tracing capabilities, which they can 

leverage as appropriate for their producers moving 

forward.

Performance Standards

Q. What is the current thinking on the traceability 

performance standards?

A. USDA, through the new approach to animal 

disease traceability, is not prescribing the methods 

or systems that States and Tribes must use in order 

to trace animals. This outcome-based approach to 

improving traceability allows States and Tribes to 

develop systems for tracing animals that work best for 

them and for producers and others in their 

jurisdictions. 

Through cooperative efforts, USDA, State and Tribes 

will measure our tracing capaiblilty by evaluating 

activities that animal health officials would typically 

conduct during an investigation of livestock that 

have moved interstate. The establishment of actual 

traceability performance standards, however, can 

only be done following review and analysis of actual 

data compiled from animal movement records after 

these regulations have been implemented. Without 

such information, the establishment of performance 

standards would be too subjective. Therefore, USDA 

will establish the traceability performance standards 

at a later date to ensure necessary data is available 

to objectively define and establish those performance 

standards. As the rule is implemented, USDA will 

continue to work with States and Tribes to measure 

tracing capabilities. Comparing the results obtained 

earlier on and over time will help document the progress being made.

Q. What is the General Standards Document?

A. The Animal Disease Traceability General Standards Document provides specific detail on, among 

other things, numbering systems, official identification devices, and ICVIs and other animal movement 

United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture
documents. The document is available online at www.

aphis.usda.gov/traceability/. 

Confidentiality

Q. Who will hold the information needed to 

conduct traces? How will USDA gain access to 

this information when a disease event occurs?

A. Under the framework traceability, information is 

maintained at the discretion of the States and Tribal 

Nations, though USDA will continue to assist States 

and Tribal Nations as requested. The information 

systems used to support animal disease traceability 

follow secure data standards to ensure compatibility of 

databases, so information can be provided to USDA 

and other States/Tribes when needed for animal disease programs. 

Q. How will animal disease traceability 

information be maintained?

A. Animal disease traceability information will be 

maintained at the discretion of the State and Tribal 

Nations. 

Q. What will USDA do to keep my information 

confidential?

A. These regulations uphold and build on existing 

USDA disease program regulations, under which 

confidentiality has always been maintained. USDA 

believes that producer information gathered through 

animal disease traceability efforts should be treated 

as information maintained under existing disease 

program regulations and, therefore, is exempt from 

provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. 

Food Safety

Q. How does the final USDA rule relate to food 

safety?

A. The final rule is specifically focused on 

controlling animal diseases; it is not a food safety 

initiative. USDA’s traceability regulations will assist 

animal health officials in quickly finding out where 

diseased animals have been and identify other at-risk 

animals. 

Q. Will animal disease traceability allow USDA to 

trace an animal back to a package of meat?

A. No. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service (APHIS) is the lead Federal agency for animal 

disease traceability. This type of pre-harvest 

traceability is focused on animal health and allows 

for the tracing of an animal’s movements during its 

lifespan. Currently, animal disease traceability ends 

when an animal is slaughtered. USDA’s Food Safety 

and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the lead agency 

dealing with food safety in meat and poultry. They 

have a wide range of programs designed to ensure 

food safety. 

Q. How will traceability protect consumers?

A. Food security involves dependability in terms of 

supply and quality, among other attributes. Should 

there be an animal disease event, including zoonotic 

disease concerns, animal disease traceability as outlined in the final rule would allow for efficient traceback 

of infected animals and the rapid quarantine of potentially exposed animals. This ensures that healthy 

animals can continue to move freely to processing 

facilities, providing a dependable and affordable 

source for consumers as well as protecting producer’s 

livelihoods. At that point, FSIS’ methods for quality 

assurance take over and assure further safety and 

security of the food supply.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.